State v. Seal’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 state decisions

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The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Because defendant was represented by the Public Defender’s Office, his status as an indigent has been established. State v. Williams, 288 So.2d 319, 321 (La.1974). La.C.Cr.P. art. 884 requires a trial court to include a default term of imprisonment for a specified period not to exceed one'year if the sentence imposed includes a fine or costs. Nevertheless, in the case of an indigent defendant, it is impermissible, to impose a prison term in lieu of payment of a fíne or costs if that would result in the defendant serving a longer term than the statutory maximum for the offense. State v. Counterman, 515 So.2d 533, 537 (La.App. 1st Cir.1987) (citing Williams v. Illinois, 399 U.S. 235, 243 , 90 S.Ct. 2018, 2023 , 26 L.Ed.2d 586 (1970)). In State v. Bohanna, 491 So.2d 756, 759 (La.App. 1st Cir.1986), we recognized that the Louisiana Supreme Court has taken this rule one step further, so that an indigent defendant may never be subjected to confinement in lieu of payment of a fíne or costs, even if the additional default sentence does not approach the maximum sentence which the court could have imposed. We based this on our review of the supreme court’s granting of writs in two cases: State v. Garrett, 480 So.2d 412 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1985), writ granted, 484 So.2d 662 (La. 1986) (sentence amended), and State v. Williams, 480 So.2d 432 (La.App. 4th Cir.1985), writ granted, 484 So.2d 662 (La.1986) (sentence amended). Thus, we find merit in defendant’s claim that the trial court’s impo”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 91 So. 3d 1252 - State v. Matt